4 Stray Dogs Jammed Flight at Haneda Airport

Ah! Four dogs somehow managed to crawl into the compound of Tokyo's Haneda International Airport and frustrated some key flights. Here's an episode of a serious but humorous story of four stray dogs that enjoyed carefree walks and runs in a most ideal playground ever.

It happened on May 11 when four dogs were found loitering in the compound of the Haneda Airport frequently nearing the runways. Dogs in Tokyo are mostly domesticated and there they were sort of having good time playing around on their own - probably gone astray away from home.

A flight from Oita, Kyoshu had to repeat touchdown to avoid the dogs running on the runway "A"; 9 other flights were jammed. A flight from Hokkaido standing by midair had to change its destination to Sendai, etc.

One of the dogs was caught by May 11 night, two others by May 12 afternoon and the last one late in the evening May 16..

The airport is enclosed in 3-meter infrated-sensored fences all around but there were found a few sections where the bottom of the fence was 10cm above the ground due to a recent renovation work. The dogs must have crawled into the airport there, the airport security authorities reported May 16. The sections were duly repaired to prevent recurrences.

So, that's the full account of the episode. It's humorous and yet somewhat threatening how an innocent happening can jam up our seemingly modern facilities - like an airport.

That said, I can't help sharing with those stray dogs such moments of great "dog runs" in the broadest of spaces in a congested town like Tokyo. You see, I happen to be a great lover of dogs and, deep in mind, I pictured one of my own enjoying the great dog run. This is Nathan Shiga.

By the way, the four dogs are in custody at a nearby animal welfare center.